DFW airport appears to have discovered an as-yet-unknown-to-me way of making air travel unpleasant -- there are no electrical outlets anywhere. At first, I'd thought this was just a particular instance of the common airport phenomenon of insufficient outlets. But no -- there are these power charging stations where you can pay money and charge up your iPod, cell phone, laptop, whatever. Nice work. It makes you wonder why they let you use the restrooms for free. Both in the airport and on the plane, that's a potentially lucrative profit center.
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Innovation
03 Feb 2008 03:21 pm
Comments (39)
In a Kuwait City mall, I had to pay 1 KD, or about $3.70, to use the restroom.
If the airports and airlines start making people pay to use the facilities, I'll just take my dumps in the corridors and discrete corners of the waiting lounges at the gates.
Who would notice in C Concourse at Dulles anyway?
Imagine going twenty-four hours without some kind of device-which-needs-recharging.
Quelle horreur!
I seem to remember as a little girl having to pay a quarter to use the restroom at Dulles when we went drop off my dad for a flight. Your ahead by at least that amount.
At some airports, though offhand I can't remember which (perhaps including DFW in the past), there are lots of outlets that simply aren't turned on. Pain in the ass.
IIRC, DFW has coin operated massage chairs in the terminal. Imagine if they charged for all the chairs. That'd be an unparalleled profit center.
I was in DFW on December 31st and was able to charge my iphone for free. Maybe it was just a free usb port, I don't remember how I did it now, but it was right in front of the TGIF's or Applebees, or whatever chain restaurant they have there.
Sometimes you can steal power from one of the booths at the gate.
In DFW I've "stolen" power from near the gate doors at unoccupied gates as well as the power outlets in the floors where the janitors plug in their vacuums/floor cleaners. Also, most of the bars will sit you at a table near an outlet if you ask.
Holy fuck, Matt, you're so spoiled.
You think airports should want hundreds of people running electrical cords every which way?
I seem to remember some airports that installed pay toilets a few years ago.
I suspect that the puddles of uring in front of the locked stalls convinced them that this was a pretty bad idea.
Think of all of the air you're breathing you're not paying for. Lost profits!
Here I sit,
broken hearted.
Paid my dime
and only farted.
----ancient text on bathroom stall.
You sure? Over the past month and I half I was at DFW several times. I used those power stations for my phone and, IIRC, my laptop, and never had to pay anything.
When I landed in DFW I had to meet someone in baggage who was on a different flight. No outlets and I wanted to charge up my phone.
On the way back I realized there are outlets. Very hard to come by - but generally in the terminals that are sectioned, the back section has 1 or 2 power outlets.
-Mike
Matt, this is all wrong. If you're talking about the Samsung-sponsored charging stations, which they have at DFW and at JFK, they don't charge anything. They're free, and are designed to prevent people from having to run around looking for an outlet. Did you actually check to see if you would have to pay before deciding this was another example of The Man putting his boot in our face?
Pay donickers are actually illegal in some states.
I usually fly in and out of DFW (as opposed to changing planes there) so I don't much look for outlets.
However you can almost always find them along the walls inside airport restaurants. So walk into the nearest restaurant and try to find a seat against the wall next to an outlet.
For long flights I ALWAYS consult
Which is a great site that allows you to find the available power ports on any plane on any major airline so you can select the ideal seat for electronic power and charging. I mostly fly American which mostly uses car cigarette lighter type power ports on its planes but not all airlines use that style of power port.
If you have power on your flight then you needn't bother so much in the airport.
Stop it right now!
Do not give them ideas, please. It started with a cup of tea for 3 dollars, then 5 minutes of internet for a dollar, etc.
Restrooms for 5 dollars will come next.
And this on top of pointless humiliation that passes for security. I mean, confiscating moisturiser and hairspray? Matches? (Well, at least for a gazillion of machbooks you could make a bomb).
It makes you wonder why they let you use the restrooms for free.
Senatorial courtesy.
There's a David Foster Wallace airport?!
A lot of the rest rooms in Latin America are pay restrooms. It's no big deal for a tourist. You pay like 10 or 25 cents to use the restroom. Usually what the money goes to is to pay a full time attendant who cleans and maintains the place.
Some of the most spotless restrooms I've ever seen in my life were in Chile at big gas station/restaurant complexes along Chile's main north-south arterial toll road. For 25 cents you get a rest room so clean and sparkling you could eat off the floors.
In those instances it's not so much a case of ripping off the traveler as it is providing employement to low skilled laborers.
Vienna has free, fast wireless internet.
DFW _has_ free power and usb charging stations. These were available in the american airlines terminals anyway. Or was it southwest? Anyway, I too, was a little afraid of them at first, but once I subdued my fear, steeled my nerves, and got closer, I was able to able satisfy myself that they were on and free. I then sauntered over to a nearby seat (disguising my intentions to charge, in case I was wrong about things anyway), plug in, and charge the shit out of everything I had.
@Invigilator -- Vienna? Who cares? I wrote them out of all my plans when they refused to let me bring my Kaypro 'portable' on board. I left it in the terminal (took my floppies of course, but, oh anyway) -- feh. In any case the Kaypro doesn't do wireless (also minus wired, but plus modem and phone). It does not have batteries, either, so I do care a great deal about power outlets. Just not wireless.
Here is the situation as roman à clé :
cmpadre1> Do they have have potato gnocchi there, or something with couscous?
2nd compadre> They have a fantastic coffee grinder, better than any in the world!
compadre1> Oh, OK. You know, I have enough coffee grinders, besides, last time I made coffee it burned my left leg off and I am not keen to repeat the experience.
2nd compadre> You need more legs, which they have in Seville!
In the 60s & 70s pay stalls were the norm at airports. They fell victim to anti-discrimination laws that held they were a disporportianate hardship for women, there being little way to actually implement pay urinals.
If the problem is that airports don't have enough places to recharge your gear, it seems like a pretty good solution would be to make people pay money for that sort of thing. Is there some sort reason why poor people should have to pay for electricity but airline passengers shouldn't?
Okay, some facts. There are very few outlets in DFW's D terminal. D terminal is the new high-ceilinged one that looks newer, nicer, and has a Cousin's Barbecue stand. Many international flights on American leave from D terminal, but some domestics do as well.
In DFW's A,B,C terminals - the older, low-ceilinged ones - there are somewhat fewer outlets than the average airport, but there are some. The Samsung "charging stations" mentioned by another commenter are in A, B, C terminals. These are enclosed spaces with chairs and counters, there are two per terminal, and they always seem to be behind a Starbucks.
If you go outside security, there are some outlets and seats in the region where the ticket counters are (at least in D terminal). If you happen to arrive on an international flight, after you clear customs you wind up outside security and might as well kill time outside as inside.
Not that I have an unhealthy obsession with DFW airport or anything.
But there are free handjobs in the southest bathroom in terminal C.
In the UK, most restrooms in major train stations are 20p. I imagine it's a combination of paying for cleaning (though they're not always that impressive) and keeping out drunken hooligans.
In this vein, when changing planes in Nagoya, Japan, I noticed a distinct lack of water fountains. But there were a lot of bottled water vendors...
I always carry a power strip with my laptop. You'd be surprised how many friends you can make that way. And, if you need to charge up, just look for the people laying on the floor and ask if they mind sharing, as you whip out your power strip.
I'm old enough to remember when DFW opened. They had pay toilets, 25 cents a pop, as I recall. A year or two of execrable publicity ended the practice.
I've always thought of free restrooms like free tap water at a restaurant: I know other countries charge for it, but it's a barbaric insult to those of us stateside.
And don't get me started about the "HotSpot" pay WiFi; at least RIC is free.
I was going to write this:
"I would think that there are pay outlets as opposed to pay toilets because desperate people can't kick in the door of a power outlet",
but the posts of Brautigan and rea were probably better.
I am sitting right now in Narita airport outside of Tokyo. So far I have found one outlet and since my converter is as heavy as fuck, I did not pack it and cannot use it here, which sucks because I was only able to kill 6 hours between flights by watching only 1.75 episodes of The Wire that I downloaded. There are water fountains with drinkable water, which after having been living in China for a while is a godsend.
You are all missing the point. This is a vital anti-terrorism measure. Who knows what evils terrorists may perpetrate if allowed to recharge their cellphones, laptops, shavers and iPods? Not to mention the potential - but not to be ignored - enemies with electrical superpowers.
The next step will be clothes.
Comments closed February 17, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
I managed to find an outlet at Denver Xmas night (near empty terminal) to recharge my cell. Apart from my relief and thrill at the find, I was constantly looking over my shoulder to see if security would come around to question me - such is the atmosphere at airports these days.
Posted by hopeless pedant | February 3, 2008 3:28 PM